Today in 1925: Headlines from April 12, 1925
One Hundred Years Ago Today…
Rewinding exactly a century, the calendar reads Sunday, 12 April 1925. Europe is still catching its breath after the Great War, jazz drifts out of newfangled radio sets, and the world economy is balancing on the thin edge between roaring growth and uneasy inflation. In Berlin, the morning papers hit doorsteps with banner headlines that will change the Weimar Republic—and, ultimately, the course of the 20th century.
Germany’s Old War Hero Jumps Into a New Battle
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On the evening of 11 April 1925, Field Marshal Paul von Hindenburg—77-year-old symbol of Imperial Germany—formally accepted the right-wing parties’ request to run for president. The news spread overnight and dominated breakfast conversation on the 12th.
• The backdrop: Germany’s first democratic president, Friedrich Ebert, had died in February. The first round of elections on 29 March produced no clear majority, and moderate candidate Karl Jarres bowed out after lackluster support. Monarchists and nationalists scrambled for a figurehead who could rally conservatives. They found it in Hindenburg, the stoic victor of Tannenberg.
• Why it mattered: Hindenburg’s candidacy lent enormous prestige to an otherwise fractured right. His eventual victory on 26 April would usher in a presidency that, while initially cautious, paved the constitutional path that let Adolf Hitler claim the chancellorship eight years later.
• A press frenzy: Berlin’s Vossische Zeitung ran the headline “HINDENBURG KANDIDIERT!”; Parisian dailies fretted about a return to militarism; London’s Times praised the “elder statesman’s sense of duty.” Radio commentators—those lucky enough to broadcast on Germany’s still-nascent network—filled the Sunday airwaves with speculation.
2025 Side-glance: In today’s hyper-connected age of social media push alerts, it’s easy to forget that in 1925 most Germans first learned political news from bulky broadsheets or smoky beer-hall chatter. Yet the ripple effect of one announcement, delivered in ink and rumor, still reshaped global history—proof that viral news didn’t start with tweets.
What to Watch For in 1925 (From a 2025 Lens)
- Run-off campaigning will heat up in the next two weeks, with centrists warning against militarism and the far right painting Hindenburg as Germany’s guardian angel.
- International markets are skittish; the Dawes Plan loans that prop up Germany’s economy depend on political stability.
- Democracy’s stress test: The Weimar constitution allows extensive emergency powers to the president—a reminder to 2025 readers that checks and balances are only as strong as the leaders who wield them.
Looking Back, Looking Forward
A hundred years later, we can pinpoint the domino that tipped: an aging general agreeing to run on a quiet Saturday night. In 2025 we often talk about inflection points—AI breakthroughs, global climate pacts, pandemic policy shifts. History teaches that some of the biggest turns are set in motion not with fireworks but with a simple signature and a headline.
So pour yourself a cup of coffee—maybe from a smart kettle that 1925 futurists could scarcely imagine—and toast to the strange, stubborn resilience of history. The stories of yesterday still shadow our own.